Norway’s state gambling regulator, Lotteritilsynet, has ordered the blocking of 57 gambling websites that the authority found operating in the country without a proper gambling license.
These 57 black market operators are run and operated by 23 companies, all of which now have been blocked in the country after the regulator issued the order on April 1st, 2025. According to Lotteritilsynet, this is only the beginning, as the regulator is in the midst of a major crackdown on all illegal gambling activities.
To ensure player security and boost transparency, the Lotteritilsynet started using “DNS blocking”, a safety measure that prohibits illegal operators from offering their products to Norwegian players and bans them from accessing the iGaming market in the country.
This measure is designed to make it impossible for players to access black market websites, and the way that it works is that it blocks the ability of the server to connect to an IP address if it’s not from Norway.
At the moment, the Lotteritilsynet refuses to issue a detailed list of the 57 blocked operators, although the regulator has stated that all of these operators were offering illegal gambling services to players from Norway.
Silje Sægrov Amble, a legal representative and lawyer of Lotteritilsynet, commented on the development and said that strict bans are the only way to ensure player safety and battle black market gambling activity in the country:
Blocking illegal websites will help fewer people develop gambling problems. These are the games that have the highest risk. They are designed to get you hooked, and you can lose a lot of money in a short time.
This round of bans comes after the Lotteritilsynet warned more than 50 gambling companies last Autumn that their websites could potentially face blocking actions. Out of 100 gambling websites operated by these 50-some companies, nearly 40 have since left the country.
Amble has further stated that blocking illegal websites is just one of the methods used by the Lotteritilsynet to curb illegal gambling, commenting that such efforts make it harder for black market operators to target Norwegian players:
It is becoming increasingly difficult to be an illegal gambling company in Norway. There are several reasons for this. TV advertising is gone, and Norwegian banks are stopping bets and winnings to and from these companies.
According to Amble, what is particularly concerning about this development is that nearly 50% of Norwegian players cannot distinguish which operators are legal and which are black market websites. Due to this, Amble calls upon the government to enable the Lotteritilsynet greater authority in monitoring the market and battling illegal websites:
Players do not know about the risk. We believe most people want information that they are entering an illegal game. Therefore, blocking is also an information measure.
